We're travelling back in time and far, far, into the Orient, to an ancient dynasty who rule over the Jade Empire. The Emperor rules wisely over his people, using the legendary Sword of Jade which confers supernatural powers upon the person who owns it.
Jade, of course, holds a very special place in Chinese culture. This rare and beautiful stone is often given when people get married, as part of a dowry. It's also believed to have mystical qualities, and the legend of the Jade Sword has long roots in Chinese history.
The Emperor is getting older, and it's time for him to choose his successor, who will in their turn, rule over the Jade Empire. Now, he's lucky enough to have two daughters. One is the Princess Yin, and she's the younger of the two. The other is the Princess Ming, and she's the elder of the two.
But all is not well in the ruling family. As ever, sisters can fall out. And when Princess Yin, the younger one, is chosen by the Emperor as his successor, all hell breaks loose. Princess Ming steals the Jade Sword, intending to seize the empire that she believes is rightfully hers. She's going to send her sister into exile and rule the land with an iron grip, using the Red Ninja Guard who is her personal army. She becomes known as Sorceress Ming.
Princess Yin wants to return home from exile, and liberate her people from the cruel Red Ninja Guard, and her tyrant elder sister. She has a bodyguard named Wu, a trusted warrior. It's game on in the Jade Empire!
Read our full review below.

Empress of the Jade Sword - another success for Microgaming

Microgaming are particularly good at both oriental themed slots and fantasy slots and they certainly pulled out all the stops with Empress of the Jade Sword. However, the kudos isn't all theirs. In fact, Empress of the Jade Sword comes from an arrangement between Microgaming and a South African software house and games developer, called - wait for it - Bla Bla Bla Studios. That's because Bla Bla Bla have established a business relationship with Quickfire. If you're a slots fan, you'll know that Quickfire is Microgaming's platform for online casinos and gaming sites which want to access Microgaming's great titles. And it seems nearly everybody does. An online gaming site without Microgaming slots is like a cheese sandwich without the cheese.

After all, there are all those famous Microgaming slots that players love, such as Game of Thrones™, Terminator 2 ™, Jurassic Park ™, Bridesmaids ™ and dozens of other branded favourites.

But now you can expect to hear more about Bla Bla Bla because they're going to be developing gaming content exclusively for the Quickfire platform. Great news for players - Bla Bla Bla are famous for their brilliant animations and engaging gameplay.

Empress of the Jade Sword is a 20 payline, five reel slot, which you can access on PC, mobile and tablet. With its wild stickies and free spins, this is a totally absorbing game. It has no less than three different bonus features, so you're not going to get bored!

Empress of the Jade Sword - Jade Wilds bonus

In the Jade Wilds feature, the sticky wild can turn adjacent symbols wild. When you have a win that involves a jade wild, you're awarded a free spin - and the wild goes sticky. During the free spin, you may find that all the fans, spear and scroll symbols that are next to the wild, have also become wilds.

Empress of the Jade Sword - Ninja Pick bonus

You have to destroy the Red Ninjas, to defeat the sorceress Princess Ming and enable Princess Yin to rule the empire. Pick out ninjas, and you could be up for a cash bounty. In fact, you definitely will be, because there's a guaranteed payout!

Ninja bonus scatters will start the Ninjas Pick game. Before you get your guaranteed bonus payout, you're going to need to get past an extremely scary looking red ninja who is just ready to pull his sword and smite you down. OK - once we're past him, we move on to the ninjas' house. Don't be put off by the pretty design and the lovely cherry blossom. There are half a dozen ninjas guarding the front of it and four on the roof.

Your mission is to pick off these ninjas. When you do, you'll see how much the bounty on each of their heads is, because your win will be displayed in a golden puff of smoke as the ninja disappears. Some of the bonuses are in the form of cash amounts and some are in the form of multipliers such as 2x.

Empress of the Jade Sword - Free Spins bonus

The free spins round is triggered by three of the pagoda type temple scatters appearing on any reel. With the free spins bonus, the game's three characters symbols stack themselves in threes to give bigger prizes. Three pagoda scatters trigger eight free spins, four of them provide twelve free spins and get five of them, and you're due 20 free spins. What's more, you can retrigger the free spins feature during the free spins by getting three scatters again - something everyone likes. The retrigger means that you could end up with 40 free spins in total.

Be aware that during the free spins round, there's no bonus symbol, so you aren't able to get the Ninja Bonus round during free spins mode. However, with both Princesses and their bodyguard taking up a full reel, you have a much higher chance of winning anyway.

Empress of the Jade Sword - Card Game bonus

There's yet another play mode as well and that is the card game, in which you can gamble on whether the next card will come up as red or black. This is a really well-designed screen because down at the bottom you can see the previous cards that have come up, and use that as the basis for your strategy in deciding what to pick next. Pick the clubs or hearts button just under the reels to gamble your standard win on a 50/50 basis, to try and get double your money.

Other Empress of the Jade Sword symbols

In terms of symbols we've got lots of jade over the wheels and fantastic oriental images. The naughty sorceress princess Ming is certainly a force to be reckoned with - she looks extremely wicked in a plunging red dress. Meanwhile, the red ninja looks suitably evil and Princess Yin is very sweet and pretty in a pink robe, jade and gold headdress, and of course, a jade sword in her hand. Princess Yin's faithful bodyguard, Wu, is a handsome manga hero type.

The Jade Wild feature has a background of cherry blossom and golden lanterns with the jade sword and scabbard in the foreground. The animations with the jade sword are great - it swings round and shines. And, of course, the wild replaces all symbols except for the scatter.

There are lots of other oriental symbols, such as the little dragon with the crescent moon and arrow symbol, and the scroll. And of course, after any big win golden fireworks go off and scatter sparks over the playing area.

Empress of the Jade Sword - symbol payouts

The most valuable character is Princess Yin of course. Precise paytable amounts will depend on the game set up, but here are some indicative payouts for the Princess. She's worth 25 times your stake when there are five of her on a payline. Take a look at the Empress of the Jade Sword paytable to see what the other symbols pay.

RTP and variance

The return to player (RTP) on the game is 95.2%, but bear in mind that this number will only come out over thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of spins. You can get much more varied results than that while playing. With a maximum win of 500 times your bet, you could do much better - but on the other hand, you might hit a dry spell and do worse!

That said, this is a medium variance game. With a low variance game, you get predictable gameplay with fairly frequent small wins. With high variance, you can wait a long time for a win but may hit the big one. Medium variance sits somewhere between the two.

Take a look at our Asian and Oriental themed slots

Asian themed slot machines and games are incredibly popular, and here at Slots Temple we have a great range for you to play for free. Not only that, we know you play slots to relax and we don't want you working too hard - so we've done the work for you! If you want to find a whole range of Oriental-themed games, just click on "Themes" on the red ribbon at the top of the Slots Temple screen. Scroll down, and you'll see that we've collected all our Asian and Oriental slots in one theme, so that you can easily find your favourites - and with over 300 to choose from, you'll be spoiled for choice.

If you liked Empress of the Jade Sword, you'll love ….

Continuing on the theme of jade, why not try the Jade Butterfly slot from Pragmatic Play? It's a beautiful game, with different coloured flowers and butterflies. With 1,024 ways to win, it's brilliant fun to play, with a generous free spins feature. You can win 13 free spins, and when you're in free spins mode, you get extra wilds appearing on the reels. What's more, all wins are multiplied by three!

It gets better - Pragmatic Play have put in a custom feature on the respins. This means that you can choose which reels you want to respin, which adds a whole extra level of strategy to the gaming experience. Definitely worth a go.

OK - admit it - you had a sneaking sympathy for the Ninjas in Empress of the Jade Sword. If you did, you'll love another title from Microgaming - Ninja Magic. With an authentic Manga-type graphic style, the game features wasps, spiders and a very rewarding female ninja. There are temple scatters that trigger a bonus round with free spins and multipliers. However, you have the chance to win lots more free spins when you enter the bonus battle with various insects. (This isn't really a slot for people suffering arachnophobia!)

If you cross the Manga style of Ninja Magic, with the pretty princess Yin in Empress of the Jade Sword, you get something akin to Koi Princess. It's got the brilliant graphics and animations we've come to expect from NetEnt, with a waterfall, beautiful cherry blossom and the cutest possible princess.

This game has bonus features and then some. There's a pick game, where you have to choose the koi fish that's going to give you the biggest win. Then there's a random feature that awards you a free spin plus a five symbol win. Another feature gives you a free spin and up to nine extra wilds on the reels. And yet another bonus gives you a free spin and up to five reels turning completely wild. Wait - we're not finished with the bonuses yet! The full bonus can be triggered through picking a special koi fish or getting bonus symbols on reels one, three and five. Definitely worth an hour of your time!

Talking of which, remember to play responsibly, even though our slots are free. If you find yourself spending too much time playing, set yourself session limits, and read our handy guide to keeping your play within limits. That way, you can keep enjoying these fabulous free slots!

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